History was full of whispers of valentines and interrupting dwarfs. The musical poems seemed done at this point, and more serious gifts were being delivered. Blaise looked surprised and touched by the chocolate heart Hermione had sent him (she'd had to buy one off of Tracey, who had extras), and Ernie Macmillan was looking very smug as a large candy display was delivered to him, Hannah Abbot's face burning in embarrassment. Hermione noted Goyle looked fairly heart-broken, and her heart went out to him. He may fancy Hannah, but it was clear she didn't know or wasn't interested back.
Pansy got a large assortment of chocolates from a secret admirer, as well as a smaller, more sedate chocolate heart assortment, also from a secret admirer. She looked surprised but pleased, and Hermione wondered if she'd sent herself the larger one but hadn't expected the smaller.
The biggest gift was one sent to Daphne: she'd received a gorgeous set of dress robes from Cassius Warrington, causing a murmur throughout the class. Clothing was a gift of courting intent, and to receive it so publicly… everyone would know, now. Daphne's face blushed prettily but she didn't seem upset in the slightest, and Hermione remembered her remarks about Cassius' intent to petition for her hand on the train.
During the last class of the Day, Defense Against the Dark Arts with the Gryffindors, Lockhart was beaming.
"I figured today we'd just take a relaxing day to enjoy it!" he told them all. "I will tell you stories of all the interesting encounters I've had with Valentine's Day in the past, and we can all discuss how well today went!"
Lockhart was the only teacher of the day to not seem bothered in the slightest when the dwarfs interrupted. He urged them to come in and welcomed them with wide smiles, stopping everything so everyone could watch as each valentine was received or gift was unveiled.
Tracey was given an enchanted chocolate fox from Adrian Pucey, which was cute and licked its own paws. Millie got a set of chocolate roses from Crabbe. And Draco got a large, extremely fancy set of chocolates in an enormous heart from "a dear friend". Even from across the room, Hermione could recognize Pansy's large loopy scrawl on the note.
She'd forgotten entirely about her own valentines until they came. First was a chocolate cupid from Blaise, and an assortment of small chocolates from the boys in her class, all delivered by one surly, overworked-looking dwarf. Mid-class, another dwarf barged in, carrying a large box that he thunked down on Hermione's desk ungracefully, and Hermione's eyes went wide.
From Anthony Goldstein, the tag read.
"What a valentine, Miss Granger!" Lockhart exclaimed, excited. "You simply must open it up!"
With a sigh, Hermione opened the box.
Inside was what looked like white silken fabric, and Hermione wondered if Anthony had sent her another cloak as she pulled it out, only for it to hang flat. A murmur went around the class, shocked faces on her classmates, and Hermione tried to look like she had some idea of what she'd just pulled out.
"Are those sheets?" Harry asked aloud, and Hermione closed her eyes and blessed him for asking the awkward questions that she publicly couldn't do.
"Those are marriage sheets, Potter," Draco sneered at him. "See the runes embroidered on the edges?"
There were runes embroidered on the edges, Hermione noticed absently. She only recognized the ones for 'love' and 'fertility', but she expected the others were similar such blessings.
"What a statement!" Lockhart said, clapping his hands. "It seems like someone already wants you in their marriage bed!"
Hermione rolled her eyes and neatly packed the box back up without a word, clearly not accepting the gift, and scrawled something on the lid as she spelled it shut.
When the next dwarf came by, she interrupted him as he marched towards his target, throwing an arm across the aisle and forcing him to pause.
"Would you please deliver this to Anthony Goldstein?" she asked sweetly, gesturing to the box on her desk. "I believe this was misdelivered."
The dwarf looked highly suspicious, but he grabbed the box and stalked off. Hermione let out a sigh of relief, and her classmates' faces rested somewhat. Even without knowing the full gamut of pureblood courting customs, Hermione knew it was not appropriate to send someone marriage bed sheets in public. Her spurning of him was practically necessary to maintain her honor, and she felt almost grateful that he'd made it easy to turn him down this year.
Two more dwarfs marched in toward the end of class, one bearing a parchment and thin box, the other bearing a small square package. To Hermione's embarrassment, both dwarfs approached her desk. There was some sort of silent glaring battle going on for dominance between the two until one grunted and moved out of the way, allowing the parchment-bearing dwarf the right of way.
"I have a poetry valentine," the dwarf said gruffly, and Hermione shot Blaise a dark look, but he held his hands up in innocence.
"By all means!" Lockhart beamed, and the dwarf cleared his throat.
"Here is your poetry valentine:
When in the chronicle of wasted time
I see descriptions of the fairest wights,
And beauty making beautiful old rhyme
In praise of ladies dead and lovely knights,
Then, in the blazon of sweet beauty's best,
Of hand, of foot, of lip, of eye, of brow,
I see their antique pen would have express'd
Even such a beauty as you master now.
So all their praises are but prophecies
Of this our time, all you prefiguring;
And, for they look'd but with divining eyes,
They had not skill enough your worth to sing:
For we, which now behold these present days,
Have eyes to wonder, but lack tongues to praise.
Hermione blushed, ducking her eyes from meeting anyone else's. She recognized the cadence of the verse, and it was obvious to anyone familiar with Shakespeare who had written it. Her classmates seemed entirely unaware of the origin, though, judging from the surprised murmurs over the quality of the verse.
It was also incredibly apparent, even without signature, who had sent it to her.
The dwarf was unusually good with reading it compared to the other dwarfs of the day. Hermione wondered if Cedric had spent the day finding the perfect dwarf to read it to her, or if it was just because this one wasn't being sung.
"And here," the dwarf finished. He pushed a rose into her hand, light pink and lavender, along with the written-out poem, and Hermione flushed and thanked him.
"How beautiful!" Lockhart exclaimed. "That was glorious! You must have quite the admirer, Miss Granger!"
Hermione felt her face burn red.
"Who sent it?" Pansy wanted to know.
"It wasn't signed," Theo told her.
"That's not what I asked," Pansy huffed. "Look at her face: she knows who sent it to her, signed or not."
Hermione felt her face blush even further as her classmates turned to her, looking. Blaise looked surprised and suspicious, while Draco's eyes had narrowed into slits.
"Do you know who sent you that, Miss Granger?" Lockhart asked, looking excited. "Surely, such a romantic gesture deserves a response!"
"Oh look," Millie said loudly. "There's still one more."
There was; the second dwarf had gotten distracted while the first dwarf had been reciting, and he had moved to the back of the classroom where he had been chipping away at a bronze bust of Lockhart with his harp. Suddenly feeling the attention on him, he cleared his throat and marched over to Hermione, thrusting the square box at her.
"Here," he said. He gave her an unfriendly look. "No singing."
Hermione took the box, expressing her thanks. She turned it over carefully, listening, before opening it.
The box held a glittering glass butterfly. It looked almost like a monarch, but with green wings instead of orange, and as Hermione examined it, she recognized the wing pattern as that of a malachite butterfly.
To her surprise, once the butterfly was fully removed from the box, it began to fly and flutter about her on its own without so much as a tap of her wand.
The class murmured as it flew around her and eventually landed on her shoulder, fluttering its wings, and Hermione's face burned.
"What a pretty gift," Lockhart said, looking somewhat puzzled. "Well, so long as you like it…"
The butterfly took off to fly around her again, glittering green wings flapping around, and Hermione remembered the glass monarch butterfly she had received anonymously the year previously – one that had sat still unless she tapped it with her wand.
She suspected she'd have needed to tap this one with her wand too, if she'd gotten it a month ago.
Neville's face was red and he was decidedly not looking at her, while Daphne and Pansy looked somewhat vaguely impressed. Draco, Blaise, and Theo were all looking at her, something knowing in their gazes, though Hermione refused to meet them, and Tracey looked on with amusement as Millie's eyes looked at her with sympathy.
Information for the sender and a bauble for the receiver, all in one – a clever, Slytherin gift, to be sure.
Suddenly that beautiful monarch she'd received last year didn't seem quite so beautiful anymore.